Posts under ‘Bill Campbell’

The Prelude project will be fired up 475 kilometres north-east of Broome, ready to liquefy natural gas straight from the ocean floor and ship it around the world.

Peter Milne: The West Australian: Saturday, 9 February 2019 1:13AM

Shell has struggled through a series of safety missteps as it readies its cutting-edge Prelude floating LNG vessel for production.

Shell reported 17 incidents to the offshore safety regulator NOPSEMA between May and October 2018 that the regulator classified as dangerous occurrences.

The reports, obtained by WestBusiness through a freedom of information request, show the challenges facing hundreds of WA workers that have helicoptered about 500km back and forth between Broome and the 488m-long giant since it arrived from South Korea in July 2017.

One difficulty with floating LNG vessels is that an LNG carrier must berth alongside as the two vessels bob about in the sea, unlike floating oil production facilities that offload oil to a tanker a safe distance away through long flexible hoses.

In early May 2018 Shell tried to bring the LNG carrier Gallina alongside.

A tow rope to a tug failed when the 290m-long carrier was just 50m from Prelude and the operation had to be aborted.

That problem was caused by a tow rope that was incorrectly assembled.

Nine days later something as trivial as wrongly shaped plastic thwarted another attempt to load LNG on to Prelude.

It was thought the Gallina was safely secured to the Prelude by 16 mooring lines that ran through guides on the Prelude called fairleads. As the crew prepared to connect the LNG loading arms a mooring line failed and the Gallina was released and pulled away.

Afterwards it was found that all 16 lines had been significantly damaged by rubbing against sharp edges of nylon liners in the fairleads.

This seemingly trifling detail could have caused a “complete mooring failure” with “potential for serious consequences” if it had occurred later while LNG was being transferred.

Two weeks later the Gallina successfully offloaded its LNG and Prelude had gas to power itself and test its processing plant.

However, having gas on board the Prelude increased the risks Shell had to manage.

A flange leaked near the LNG loading arms as super-cold -162C LNG sitting at the bottom of a pipe caused it to contract and bend.

Another type of gas, hydrogen sulphide, was released when construction debris from the Korean shipyard was being removed from a tank and the area was evacuated.

In July a fire damper intended to keep gas from entering the air-conditioning system for the accommodation quarters failed to close when tested but was repaired quickly.

In August, Prelude lost all its power supply when a pump sending water to a gas-fired boiler tripped.

All workers on the Prelude and the attached 750-bed Posh Arcadia floating hotel went to their muster stations as the diesel emergency generators powered up to supply essential services.

But a transformer failed and the system to cover the deck with firefighting foam was left without power and unable to operate.

Other problems included a test of a system to cover the top of LNG tanks with a deluge of water in an emergency that found it delivered only half the planned amount of water as the system used undersized valves.

There was a small fire when dust in an oxygen cylinder valve ignited, leading to a muster of all personnel.

Newly installed insulation on a hot high-pressure steam line was seen smouldering and when the insulation was pulled away it caught fire. The insulation had been secured by combustible tape.

A Shell spokeswoman said the company had a rigorous program on Prelude to identify and manage risk in a controlled way.

“It is not unexpected for issues to arise during this phase of a project and it is standard practice to notify NOPSEMA,” she said. “We are proud of our safety and reporting culture.”

2019

The links below are to a series of articles, many triggered by a well-placed whistleblower directly involved in the pioneering Royal Dutch Shell Prelude project. Includes articles by Mr Bill Campbell, the retired distinguished HSE Group Auditor of Shell International and another retired Shell guru with a track record of spotting potential pitfalls in major Shell projects.read more

Littering the North Sea appears a rather emotive statement by the Professor, quite appalling, completely unacceptable etc. He also links the plans for the concrete structures to an outsourcing of jobs from Glasgow which is unrelated to the structures.

Professor Russell previously wrote about the storage cells containing radioactive material also in an exaggerated way, the sludge contains naturally occurring low-level radioactive material which many studies declare does not pose a risk to persons or the environment.read more

Under Trump, with the senate and congress to support him, we can look forward soon to significant deregulation in the US effecting positively onshore fracking, tar sands development, offshore Deepwater in the Gulf and a boost perhaps to Alaska drilling. One assumes the Keystone pipeline will go ahead and perhaps pipelines running from central US to East Coast for new LNG Plants to supply a Europe hedging its bets over Russian gas availability with Europe’s ongoing problems with Putin, sanctions etc. A significant increase in US output, leading to increase in global supply over demand could dampen oil price. Shell seems to have divested assets recently in the US in some of these areas to offset BG takeover costs so uncertain whether Trumpworld will be good or bad for Shell.read more

Energy Voice has announced that it has teamed up with Shell to “celebrate 40 years of Brent”.

A series of related “promoted” articles are being published. I take that as meaning Shell is paying for the articles. If this assumption is correct, the only history included will be of the whitewashed variety.

I doubt there will be any reference to the consequences of Shell’s appalling safety record on the Brent platforms, with falsified safety records, a “Touch F*** All” regime in regard to critical equipment maintenance, followed by the cover-up and the deaths on Brent Bravo, leading to a record-breaking fine. Will the unseaworthy lifeboats get a mention? Of course not. Shell continued to put production and profits before safety. Just read this index of related articles.read more

Much has been written on this website about FLNG, the Prelude specifically raising doubts about the validity of claims by Shell that FLNG risks are as safe as if not more so than conventional offshore installations. The Government report raised considerable concerns in relation to the safety of FLNG facilities. In particular, concerns were raised about the compact nature of the working environment offshore relative to the space afforded to an onshore LNG processing plant and that the facilities will remain manned during cyclonic storms.read more

Interesting use of terminology by BvB, real material cash, what other type is there rather than funny money.

Prelude dumped from super star gamechanger status to important tool, an aspirin rather than a panacea for all ills, has certainly generated, and it appears will continue to generate, something of a debt mountain for RDS. $15 billion and counting has been allocated to finance the venture outflowing since at least 2007/8 at commencement of conceptual and then detailed design. I may be wrong, but I thought the production start date was given at the time when the first metal was cut in the yards in 2010, as 2016 – now it will be a least 10 years till 2018 before the project will start generating revenue. Our esteemed contributor London Lad, who knows a thing or three about project economics, will confirm, if he feels so inclined, that the breakeven point in any project is determined by how quickly capital spending is halted and operational revenue creation is started. The viability of the project per se, as to whether it will ever add value or be a financial millstone, is determined when production eventually starts by the rate of return of the capital invested, and here BvB hopes for real material cash, and lots of it, and hopefully by 2018 the cash will start to flow. Anybody guess how long it will take for this Project to breakeven?read more

I would have thought that Simon Henry’s position as CFO should now be untenable, in view of the apparent lack of effective financial governance in Nigeria while he was CFO.

By John Donovan

A large number of press articles have appeared recently mentioning Ben van Beurden.

Since these articles are presumably fed to the press by Shell’s PR team, and Shell is not a one-man company, I checked to see whether other Shell directors have appeared recently in press releases.

The results are somewhat curious. For example, searching for Matthias Bichsel on Google News shows that articles were published about him at least weekly until October last year, but the articles then stopped abruptly. References to Simon Henry seem to have dried up a few weeks ago – until mid-March there were articles on Henry on an almost daily basis, but recently there has been nothing. Harry Brekelmans seems to have had a low profile since his appointment, so it is harder to see whether any change has occurred. Andy Brown has almost as many press articles as Ben van Beurden.read more

The Malaga factory of Swiss multinational engineering giant ABB will be the focal point for a five-year contract to provide services and equipment to Shell’s Prelude floating LNG facility off the Kimberley coast.

The Shell order includes the delivery of motors, generators, variable speed drives and low-voltage switchgear and guarantees service and lifecycle management of the electrical equipment as well as service and support for motors from third-party vendors.read more

Angela Macdonald-Smith: November 4, 2015

Royal Dutch Shell remains unequivocally bullish on prospects for liquefied natural gas despite the current market glut, pointing to several options for new supply projects after its planned $US70 billion ($97 billion) takeover of BG Group and plenty of new markets opening up around the world.

“The fundamentals of this market look as robust now as in the past to us,” chief financial officer Simon Henry told investors overnight Australian time, spelling out Shell’s expectation that global LNG demand will expand at 5 per cent a year to 2030, only modestly lower than the 8 per cent annual growth seen since 2000.read more

The Anglo-Dutch giant has never disclosed Prelude’s capital cost or start-up date

Peter Klinger: October 13, 2015

Just a year out from market expectations of first gas, Royal Dutch Shell is giving nothing away about the pace of progress at its revolutionary Prelude floating LNG operation.

Shell has sent out its regular update of the mega-project, which comprises construction of the industry-changing floating processing plant in Samsung’s Geoje shipyard in South Korea and a gas-condensate well and subsea pipeline network in the Browse Basin off the Kimberley.

Shell’s update said the second-last module had been installed on the Prelude floater, while in the Browse Basin the focus was on installing flow lines and pipeline end terminations.read more

Drydocks World has marked a major milestone by completing the world’s largest turret mooring system.

At almost 100 meters high, weighing over 11,000 tons and with a diameter of 26 meters, the turret will ensure Shell’s Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility can operate safely in the most extreme weather conditions.

The FLNG will be stationed in the Prelude gas field off the northwest coast of Australia. It will be Shell’s first FLNG deployment. The technology allows for the production, liquefaction, storage and transfer of LNG at sea, as well as the ability to process and export liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and condensate.read more

Article by Angela Macdonald-Smith published by The Sydney Morning Herald: 8 May 2015

WA inquiry shines spotlight on floating LNG safety fears

Royal Dutch Shell and Woodside Petroleum have insisted that workers to be stationed on vast floating liquefied natural gas plants far off the Western Australian coast will be safe despite serious concerns having been raised in a parliamentary inquiry that they won’t be evacuated even for severe tropical cyclones.

A WA parliamentary committee examining the safety of floating LNG highlighted fears that workers would be thrown around within their accommodation modules during cyclones and could experience psychological stress at being unable to leave the vessel.read more

The Case against Malcolm Brinded CBE:

Dear Mr Gordon

Firstly, I would like to thank you for your continual support especially over the period when the Fiscal Anne Currie was carrying out her investigation into the conduct of Shell and HSE officials (2009 – 2011), Appendix C of the attached refers. If you check your files you will bring to mind that early in 2012, I sent a joint communication copied to you and the Royal Dutch Chairman (RDS) Jorma Ollila and his Legal Counsel Michiel Brandjes. We discussed in some detail the contents of a conversation that took place shortly after Shell had issued a press release (Appendix A) with a complete denial of the claims made both on BBC Scotland TV and the oil and gas industry trade Magazine Upstream. As a result of this communication, and by April 2012 ,Malcolm Brinded was released from the employ of RDS, his release initiated by his employer. For the record, as you are aware I was not allowed to come to Aberdeen to make a statement or to convey the many pages of evidence in what is a complex business. Acting to the instruction of the Fiscal Anne Currie the evidence was passed by Grampian police to her.read more

Shell employees can potentially end up financially destitute or in jail for acts of negligence, for lying or falsifying records on behalf of Shell, or when giving misleading evidence on behalf of Shell in a court case.

ARTICLE BY BILL CAMPBELL, RETIRED HSE GROUP AUDITOR, SHELL INTERNATIONAL

Could you really trust ex Shell executives to run a railway network?

In the usual manner *TFA Malcolm the Tank Engine arranged for his apprentice Marc Carne to take over as CEO of Network Rail, but like his disciples Bjorn Berget, Chris Finlayson, Gregory P Hill, dear Marc is a follower, not a leader, how otherwise would TFA Brinded have recruited them as his obedient servants in the first place.

Outside the protected arena of Shell, and in the public domain, we sense their true worth.read more

PRELUDE DESIGNED BY SHELL LAWYERS? MORE IMPORTANT ROLE THAN ENGINEERS?

What will Bill Campbell make of the boasts from Shell’s chief lawyer Donny Ching, about the pivotal role of Shell in-house lawyers in the world’s first floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, Prelude FLNG?

Ching also believes that external law firms would have been no substitute for in-house lawyers in the work they did to build the world’s first floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, Prelude FLNG.read more

I am not sure that directly comparing the explosive potential arising from the Hindenburg and the Shell Prelude is strictly appropriate. However, what is beyond doubt is that these pioneering ventures both captured the attention of the worlds media and a loss of containment on the Prelude could potentially create another catastrophic event.

The Shell Prelude, by far and away the biggest vessel the world has ever see, is nearing completion in South Korea. A well placed whistleblower says that Shell management has ignored his warnings over shoddy work in the construction and outfitting that puts safety at risk.read more

These claims do not appear to be founded on fact but appear to be simply propaganda; …the Shell claims are fiction, wishful thinking. Royal Dutch Shell, bound by its general business principles of honesty and integrity, casts these principles aside by simply fabricating stories re the health and safety risks of FLNG, as a means to an end.

Is Shell prepared to stand by the public statements they make about FLNG risks? Not likely it appears

In recent articles I challenged the unsubstantiated claims, with respect to the health and safety risks associated with FLNG, made by Shell on its websites. These claims do not appear to be founded on fact but appear to be simply propaganda. Shell would dearly wish that the risks of Prelude FLNG for example were quote on par with the risk levels of modern offshore installations, but this is a statement drawn from the ether, with no credible analysis to support it.

The industry itself does not support the Shell euphoria with their more down to earth and sober assessment of the risks as we venture into the unknown by locating a hazardous substances plant on a vessel on the high sea for the first time. read more

To obtain an overall assessment on risks relating to Prelude, the article by Robert Sullivan is best read in conjunction with a series of articles by experts triggered by a well-placed whistleblower directly involved in the equally pioneering Shell Prelude project. Includes articles by Bill Campbell, the retired distinguished HSE Group Auditor of Shell International and Hans Bouman, another retired Shell guru with a track record of spotting potential pitfalls in major Shell projects.read more

After all the Royal Dutch Shell senior management promises to improve safety on Shell North Sea platforms, serious incidents continue to occur.

EnergyVoice.com is reporting that Shell workers have today been evacuated from the Brent Alpha and Bravo platforms after a crane dropped a large container into the North Sea.

Extracts

The container, which was in the process of being winched onto a support vessel when the incident unfolded, initially rested dangerously close to a mass of subsea pipelines which connect into the Far North Liquids & Associated Gas System (Flags) pipeline.read more

Final article in a series of five articles by Bill Campbell, retired HSE Group Auditor, Shell International, about risks relating to the Shell Prelude FLNG project.

Prelude FLNG risks are on par with modern offshore oil and gas facilities say Shell– but are they? Let’s discuss

With the implementation of the recommendations post Piper A, turned quickly into legislation, the potential consequences of hydrocarbon releases have been markedly reduced, but Floating FLNG facilities cannot comply, other than that front end gas feed from the reservoir will be shut in and the process gas flared, huge amounts of volatile hydrocarbon liquids remain stored in the hull, which is also the primary structure supporting the process, utilities and the living quarters.

Prelude for example has in its hull, tanks with a capacity to hold 220,000 m3 of LNG, when the cryogenic liquid is returned to gas this equates to 132 million m3 of methane. It also has capacity for 90,000 m3 of LPG and 126,000 m3 of Condensate, with an overall capacity Shell states equivalent to 175 Olympic swimming pools.read more

A safety audit on the Brent Bravo platform in 1999 led by Bill Campbell exposed a “Touch F*** All” culture with safety records routinely falsified. The damning audit report was passed to then Shell EP director Malcolm Brinded, who made promises to remedy the situation that were not kept. Instead Brinded decided to put profits before safety. Hence the subsequent deadly explosion followed by a cover-up at the highest level of Royal Dutch Shell. It seems from recently published articles that despite all the pledges and the appointment of a so-called safety Czar, nothing has changed.

By John Donovan

In 2005, Shell received a record breaking fine of £900,000 at Stonehaven Sheriff Court, for a series of safety failings on the Brent Bravo platform, which led to a gas leak inside the giant platform’s utility leg and the tragic avoidable deaths of offshore workers.

A safety audit on the Brent Bravo platform in 1999 led by Bill Campbell exposed a “Touch F*** All” culture with safety records routinely falsified.

The damning audit report was passed to then Shell EP director Malcolm Brinded, who made promises to remedy the situation that were not kept. Instead Brinded decided to put profits before safety. Hence the subsequent deadly explosion followed by a cover-up at the highest level of Royal Dutch Shell.read more

Fourth in a series of articles by Bill Campbell, retired HSE Group Auditor, Shell International, about safety issues relating to the Shell Prelude FLNG project.

Why Floating LNG is such a risky business venture

It’s an old saying but it is one that is clearly understood, drop the basket and all may be lost. FLNG as a concept is not cheap, on the contrary, but what makes it economically attractive is that you have a reusable functional asset, a very large vessel, which being portable, can disconnect from its seabed anchor system when the field is depleted and relocate to begin all over again in another offshore gas field along with the redeployment of its seabed anchor system. No ongoing costs related to recovering pipelines, abandoning a fixed offshore installation, or removing plant and returning many acres onshore to the condition it was in prior to the construction of the onshore plant.read more

It seems that the alarming articles we have published about the Royal Dutch Shell Prelude FLNG project, highlighting risks based on insider information and expert opinion, may have had an unintended impact.

According to a Dow Jones news report published today, GDF Suez SA and Santos Ltd have both withdrawn from their plans to develop their own floating liquefied natural gas project off the northern coast of Western Australia – the Bonaparte venture.

The Capital.gr article points out that budget overruns at a number of LNG developments in Australia “have underscored the risks for international energy companies weighing new projects.”read more

Shell Germany had offered a free Kindle e-reader for 999 points to be earned when filling up. But also when buying a chocolate bar of € 1.29, this gave 100 points…. Buying 10 bars of chocolate and you had an e-reader. They ran out of Kindles after 3 hours!!! Their website collapsed due to 40-fold traffic increase. Big disaster. Many people pissed off.

FROM AN OLD EP HAND

Shell Germany had offered a free Kindle e-reader for 999 points to be earned when filling up. But also when buying a chocolate bar of € 1.29, this gave 100 points…. Buying 10 bars of chocolate and you had an e-reader. There were ‘only’ 10.000 e-readers so they soon ran out, Germans are not crazy and can calculate. Now many disgusted customers. Shell offered excuses to customers.

Good idea, not thought through and blind to an error of giving many points for a chocolate bar.

“With hindsight you should revisit his CV printed out by the BG Group at the time of his appointment, a work of fiction that Hans Christian Andersen would have been proud of. You are right, your web site warned the World about his previous track record but such foresight is often ignored.”

Comment received from Bill Campbell, Retired HSE Group Auditor, Shell International

John

There was many years ago a principle put forward by LJ Peter in his 1969 book as to why things always go wrong in organisations. Peter espoused that managers were oft promoted into positions that they were incompetent to handle. So it was with Chris Finlayson who was tracked up through the ranks holding on to the coat tails of his mentor TFA Brinded. I used to call it the parasitical approach to development and promotion through attachment to a big powerful animal who was on an accelerated promotion curve the employee could avoid the normal HR assessment process safeguarded by his powerful mentor. In return Brinded had a set of disciples who would be loyal and unquestioning and whom he could micromanage as he saw fit. read more

So a 5 minute look inside the reported numbers paints a different picture, certainly a clearer picture and a picture that despite the hot air, from a risk analysis viewpoint clarifies that there has been no significant reduction in risk despite the credit being taken by the industry and the Regulator.

As a shareholder I received a letter from Shell UK Country Chairman recently. Under Health and Safety he takes credit for an important milestone achieved in April 2013 when he states our upstream business in the North Sea achieved an important milestone in a 50 per cent reduction in the number of hydrocarbon releases over the last three years in line with the industry commitment made in 2009. In 2008 there were 83 major and significant releases and this reduced to 72 in 2009. The Energy Minister and the HSE pronounced this at the time as a significant reduction but actually it only reduced mean time between releases from circa every 4 days to circa every 5 days, hardly a significant reduction. From formal risk analysis a significant risk reduction could only be claimed by an order of magnitude reduction that is from 83 to 8. However, the politics of any reduction is to blow your trumpet whether the reduction is actually reducing risk or not.read more

Entirely the wrong man to entrust with an oversight function in relation to the safety of rail passengers. He was shunted out of Shell under a cloud. If that is a model of the Shell Prelude in the background of the photograph, it is not an encouraging omen.

Mining giant BHP Billiton has appointed former Royal Dutch Shell executive Malcolm Brinded to its board as a Non-executive Director. He is also a Non-executive Director of the Network Rail Board in the UK, where he chairs the Safety, Health and Environment Committee. (Information published today)

Ironic bearing in mind the evidence assembled by Bill Campbell, the highly respected former HSE Group Auditor of Shell International confirming that Brinded already has the blood of Shell offshore employees on his hands. The evidence relating to Shell’s notorious “Touch F*** All” safety culture on the Brent Bravo North Sea Platforms while Brinded was in charge, includes tape recorded conversations with senior Shell officials.read more

Despite all promises to the contrary, Shell is still putting monetary considerations before safety. Just read some of the recent articles about Shell’s reckless conduct in offshore Alaska. It put the lives of offshore workers and the environment at risk to avoid a potential multimillion dollar tax bill. Personally, I do not believe enough attention has been drawn to the ethical issue of Shell deliberately putting peoples lives at risk in a calculated gamble.

Royal Dutch Shell Safety Last, not First

By John Donovan

Despite all promises to the contrary, Shell is still putting monetary considerations before safety.

Just read some of the recent articles about Shell’s reckless conduct in offshore Alaska.

It put the lives of offshore workers and the environment at risk to avoid a potential multimillion dollar tax bill.

This extract from a US News & World Report article published yesterday is typical of the many comments published elsewhere:

Notably, in September 2012, a Royal Dutch Shell drilling rig ran aground in Alaska as workers attempted to tow it beyond the state’s waters. A Coast Guard report released Friday found that the Anglo-Dutch oil company decided to move the rig – and insisted on doing so through dangerous stormy weather – to avoid paying new Alaskan taxes. The report also detailed myriad safety issues.read more

Now we have further confirmation that Shell was trying to dodge a multimillion tax bill. This time confirmation comes from the findings of an investigation by the Coast Guard division of US Homeland Security. There are going to be more Royal Dutch Shell executives looking for alternative employment… And Marvin Odum, Shell’s boss in the USA, should be top of the list.

By John Donovan

After Shell’s Arctic ambitions hit the rocks at the end of December 2012, Shell initially conceded that the ill-fated Kulluk drilling rig had left port under tow to avoid taxes.

We subsequently had confirmation from one of the honest people at Shell, Sean Churchfield, its operations manager in Alaska, that the first admission was correct. The Kulluk had indeed left port in order to avoid “millions” in annual state taxes.read more

Tales of the Unexpected – When the party ended with a bang!: 3rd in a series of articles by Bill Campbell (right), retired HSE Group Auditor, Shell International, about safety issues relating to the Shell Prelude FLNG project

Thus methane-air explosions are unpredictable, and by definition unpredictable events take you by surprise and can occur when you least expect them, and often when you are least prepared. And unfortunately, from time to time, these unpredictable events can have catastrophic consequences as history tells us.

By Bill Campbell

LNG is natural gas (methane) refrigerated, the chilling process eventually turning the gas into a liquid shrinking its volume by 600 times. As we are aware from elementary physics, energy cannot be created or destroyed, so the whole economic model of the use and transportation of LNG worldwide, which really started in the 50’s and is due to exponentially expand in the next decade, is that the heat energy contained in one metre cubed of the liquid equates to six hundred metres cubed of methane. So the physical characteristics of liquified natural gas is what makes it economically viable in its transportation over in some cases many thousands of miles from its source to where it will be used when converted again into its natural state. But it’s this conversion that can make it so dangerous should it spill or leak into the atmosphere accidentally.read more

Tales of the Unexpected – 2nd in a series of articles by Bill Campbell, retired HSE Group Auditor, Shell International, about safety issues relating to the Shell Prelude FLNG project

A Prelude to disaster?

Introduction by John Donovan

On 28 December I broke the news that a whistleblower had supplied me with photographic evidence to support their concerns over the safety of the construction of Shell’s Prelude FLNG flagship vessel. The Prelude insider source alleges that packages are being installed on the vessel by totally unqualified personnel and accuses management of a failure to understand standards and regulations and claims the construction work would never pass UK standards. The source has been intimately involved in the project and is genuinely concerned that warnings issued to Shell management (and other parties) have been ignored and financial considerations are taking priority over safety issues. His warnings prompted a regular contributor, Bill Campbell, the retired HSE Group Auditor of Shell International to author articles on the subject that take into account his decades long experience and expertise. This is the second in an intended series.read more

Any Shell shareholders diligent enough to wade through all the small print in the recently released Shell Strategic Report have grounds to shudder at the confirmation buried on page 8 that Royal Dutch Shell PLC mainly self insures its risk exposures. This information should be prominently displayed in large red text, flashing if that was possible.

The relevant section even cites the BP Deepwater disaster for which BP had no external insurance. As a consequence, one of the worlds biggest companies was brought to the edge of bankruptcy by just one calamitous event.read more

The revolutionary concept of offshore LNG installations (FLNG) is said to have economic and environmental advantages. A distinct disadvantage however is that the risks to health and safety of persons employed offshore on the LNG FPSO’s, such as Prelude, will be higher, when compared to onshore LNG plants of similar capacity, specifically the potential for loss of life; …loss of containment of hydrocarbons is likely to occur on Prelude during its operational life, either through flaws in the design, human error or failure to inspect and maintain. It’s almost inevitable. It’s only to be hoped that the consequences of these losses never reach their full potential.

By Bill Campbell, Retired HSE Group Auditor, Shell International

Prelude FLNG turns conventional wisdom on its head

The revolutionary concept of offshore LNG installations (FLNG) is said to have economic and environmental advantages. A distinct disadvantage however is that the risks to health and safety of persons employed offshore on the LNG FPSO’s, such as Prelude, will be higher, when compared to onshore LNG plants of similar capacity, specifically the potential for loss of life.

This article concentrates on the perfect contradiction that exists between managing risks on an onshore LNG plant when compared with floating LNG. Whereas onshore plants, handling hazardous substances reduce risk by physical separation, such separation, although attempted on Prelude would not be accepted onshore because the separation distances are inadequate. Prelude will store high quantities of cryogenic hydrocarbon liquids on the installation. The heat energy of the liquids is enormous. This contradicts the £6 billion or so expenditure in the North Sea, post Piper Alpha, to do as much as reasonably practicable, to reduce the heat energy available so that escalation of hydrocarbon events are limited such that the Temporary refuge (TR), normally the Living quarters, and including escape routes to the TR and evacuation from it, will not be impaired within one hour to allow safe evacuation of the facility. The frequency of TR impairment should be demonstrated to be no more than once in 1000 yrs. It’s a high standard to achieve.read more

OFFSHORE EXPERT: “Having read this Prelude document a few times to take it all in, it seems to me that the main issue is how do you design for a 10,000 year event?” COMMENT: “I am not an expert and would only say that so-called 10,000 year weather events seem to be occurring annually at the moment. If Noah was still around, and residing in Southern England, he might well be looking for his carpentry tools.”

COMMENT FROM A RETIRED SHELL OFFSHORE MANAGER

The 28 page section of a 75 page Shell document gives a description of the development and goes into great detail, providing answers to most of the issues raised by a fellow Shell Retiree.

Having read this Prelude document a few times to take it all in, it seems to me that the main issue is how do you design for a 10,000 year event?

The many issues raised with respect to cyclonic activity, waves, wind and the ability to weather vane are answered. There are two thrusters located near the stern with a total power of 6 megawatts or 8,000 HP. More than ample to ensure the heading of the facility is optimum at all times. Other issues with respect to Green house gas emissions during operations and other environmental are dealt with in detail.read more

Extract from an article published today: The incident was stood down later that morning, but inspectors have accused Shell of failing to have systems in place that would see equipment which is exposed to the elements checked regularly for rust. The notice – which was made public yesterday – stated: “You (Shell) failed to have effective arrangements to ensure work equipment exposed to conditions causing deterioration which is liable to result in dangerous situations is inspected at suitable intervals, and an adequate record of that inspection kept, to ensure that health and safety conditions are maintained and that any deterioration can be detected and remedied in good time.”

By John Donovan

In 2005, Shell received a record breaking fine of £900,000 at Stonehaven Sheriff Court, for a series of safety failings on the Brent Bravo platform, which led to a gas leak inside the giant platform’s utility leg and the tragic avoidable deaths of offshore workers.

A safety audit on the Brent Bravo platform in 1999 led by Bill Campbell exposed a “Touch F*** All” culture with safety records routinely falsified.

His report was passed to Shell EP director Malcolm Brinded, who made promises to remedy the situation that were not kept. Instead Brinded decided to put profits before safety. Hence the subsequent deadly explosion followed by a cover-up at the highest level of Royal Dutch Shell.read more

There is a striking similarity between Rolf’s case and the whistleblower activities of Bill Campbell, the retired Health & Safety Group Auditor of Shell International who warned Shell about evidence of false and misleading information in Shell Brent Bravo maintenance records, prior to the tragic, but avoidable explosion in which offshore workers were killed. Safety records had been routinely falsified and Shell had operated a notorious “Touch Fuck All” maintenance policy that put production (and profits) before safety.

By John Donovan

The plight of Rolf Wilborg Ex Norwegian Petroleum Directorate regulator for the Norwegian sector offshore has been brought my attention.

There is a striking similarity between Rolf’s case and the whistleblower activities of Bill Campbell, the retired Health & Safety Group Auditor of Shell International who warned Shell about evidence of false and misleading information in Shell Brent Bravo maintenance records, prior to the tragic, but avoidable explosion in which offshore workers were killed. Safety records had been routinely falsified and Shell had operated a notorious “Touch Fuck All” maintenance policy that put production (and profits) before safety. read more

In summary, and there was evidence in 1999 to support this to a degree, Finlayson saw himself as a victim of a brutal regime run out of Seafield House where the TFA mode was born and his MD Malcolm Brinded who was frantically doing everything in his power to suppress all this because he was seen by the Audit to be the principal architect of the demise in standards throughout the oilfield.Â Finlayson in my book was weak, and ineffective, promoted in my opinion into a position he wasn’t competent or willing to handle.

EMAIL SENT 21 OCT 2013 TO A THIRD PARTY BY BILL CAMPBELL, RETIRED HSE GROUP AUDITOR, SHELL INTERNATIONAL

Subject: Chris Finlayson

My dealings with Chris were a long time ago during an Audit in 1999.Â This Audit uncovered remarkably bad behaviour in the then Shell Expro organisation stemming from the business drivers and messages coming from the top of the organisation.

I spent some hours in the presence of Aberdeen auditors trying to get Finlayson to retract his statements made to journalists and the BBC North reporter Colin Wight that the Touch F All concerns raised by workforce representatives were unwarranted whilst in fact the situation was worse, much worse than anyone outside the organisation could have envisaged. Last December on his appointment as the BG Chief the Independent newspaper (Mark Leftly) run a article on Finlayson titled if I can remember BG Chief breached safety rules when he was at Shell.Â Subsequently I wrote a couple of articles putting the meat on the bones of this which John Donovan published. BG given the right to reply made no comment and to date have not requested the evidence to support although this was offered to them.In summary, and there was evidence in 1999 to support this to a degree, Finlayson saw himself as a victim of a brutal regime run out of Seafield House where the TFA mode was born and his MD Malcolm Brinded who was frantically doing everything in his power to suppress all this because he was seen by the Audit to be the principal architect of the demise in standards throughout the oilfield. Finlayson in my book was weak, and ineffective, promoted in my opinion into a position he wasn’t competent or willing to handle.read more

There was evidence of false and misleading information in maintenance records for safety critical equipment, for example the Brent Bravo ESDV which failed its leak-off test in April 1998 was recorded as ‘NO FAULT FOUND’.

This covers Emergency Shutdown Valves (ESDV), fire and gas detection systems designed to operate on ESDV in an emergency and unapproved temporary repairs.Â This data is not disputed by Shell as being their data. This data supports the articles sent to you a few days ago.read more

ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC (COMPANY SEC MICHIEL BRANDJES) AND THE SCOTTISH POLICE (CHIEF SUPT. BILLY GORDON) HAVE HAD ADVANCE SIGHT OF THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHED INFORMATION FROM BILL CAMPBELL, RETIRED HSE GROUP AUDITOR, SHELL INTERNATIONAL

JohnÂ I want to keep up the pressure on Shell by the publication of these two additional articles that cover the hardware faults taken from Shell’s own data.Â The Chairman wrote to me some time ago saying he agreed with the 2006 press releases, I understand his defence now is that he was misled at the time by Malcolm Brinded and his legal counsel Keith Ruddock.Â I want to use the fact that the Chairman has not raised, and will not raise, any legal objection to these articles in this correspondence copied to the police, and the previous article re behaviours, in future correspondence with the HSE and the judiciary.Â I will pass to all the bundles of evidence supporting these articles in due courseÂ Billread more

The first article is attached which I would ask John Donovan if he could kindly print this on his website on 11th September.Â In separate correspondence I will pass you the Shell evidence from 1999/2003 which is then cross compared with the prosecution findings and the public inquiry.Â In all, 4 or 5 articles will be published which will support the case that Director’s of Shell were culpable in relation to the deaths, and that HSE officials were, by the examination of their own evidence, involved with Misconduct in Public Office. Perhaps the most damaging will be… Shell accepts retention of mentally unstable Manager contributed to offshore deaths…

RECEIVED TODAY FROM MR BILL CAMPBELL, RETIRED HSE GROUP AUDITOR, SHELL INTERNATIONAL. MR CAMPBELL HAS ALSO SENT THE SAME INFORMATION TO ROYAL DUTCH SHELL AND GRAMPIAN POLICE. MR CAMPBELL IS A NORTH SEA EP PLATFORM SAFETY EXPERT, OFTEN CITED IN THE PRESS AND ON TV

By Bill Campbell

We approach the 10 year anniversary of the deaths of Sean McCue and Keith Moncrieff on Brent Bravo on 11 September 2003.Â Evidence led at the public Inquiry insinuated they were in part responsible for their own deaths since they carried out work without a permit. During the recent anniversary of Piper Alpha I was approached by a number of journalists to make comment in general re the effectiveness of the safety case regime and I plan to publish a number of articles and provide them with the evidence that they were misled in 2006, a number of journalists lost their jobs, or left their current employer, for daring to go up against the mighty Shell, so I can assure you there is no love lost.Â After the investigation by the Procurator Fiscal –read more

As for Commander Odum, he of the theatre of Operations, only a marine incident etc school he was doomed not by the grounding of the good ship Kulluk, but in the lie telling that followed.Â It was not I fear just poor Lawrence of Alaska who suffered from this misadventure.Â

It was not a surprise to me that Simon Henry was not in the running, the Head Shed watchers of this website would have realised that he carried heavy baggage from the reserves affair, also Shell does not appreciate the washing of its dirty linen in public, the stories for example from the lips of Simon that Pastor Phil (did he have an out of spacesuit experience when he passed through the heavenly layer on his way back to ground at Maastricht and was thus converted) was carrying a huge chip on his shoulder because he was not an Oxbridge man, who knows.Â Henry, as the Bedouin are fond of saying say, was outside the tent pissing in, an unforgivable sin.read more

At that point, when you send a letter in your name knowing that it is designed to deceive, you have lost your integrity and join previous Shell senior executives, such as Jeroen van der Veer, who also gave in to the dark side of Shell. Bill Campbell, the retired HSE Group Auditor of Shell International has confirmed that the same internal investigation smokescreen was used in respect of the Brent Bravo deaths scandal.

The crisis in my book, and we are far from the endpoint in this, is that RDS officials lied in that the decision to move Kulluk was not related to tax avoidance when it was.Â Perhaps that is why the RDS CEO has taken a closer interest in his family and the sustainability of his future.

ARTICLE BY BILL CAMPBELL, RETIRED HSE GROUP AUDITOR, SHELL INTERNATIONAL

In the new Shell, that which developed in the days of post transformation, group dancing in that nice hotel near the Het Loo Palace, with the dear leader Watts arriving from space etc around the same time, who can forget those heady days.Â Is that when to lie and deceive became the norm in the head sheds of The Hague. Is that when the growth of VP’s started, not the Joe Biden variety, the Shell model, we currently appear to have more VP’s than indian meals sold in Bradford on a Friday night.read more

Deluded and or ignorant, no, Mr Spuij is just reading from the script, repeating the standard Shell propaganda that Safety is our No 1 priority and will never be compromised, despite any facts to the contrary.

Although as he says Shell were not involved in the Transocean Deepwater Horizon disaster – according to Peter R Voser a disaster that Shell in any case would have avoided due to its superior standards – he fails to mention the Transocean SEDCO 711 incident when this mobile drilling unit had a near blowout whilst operating in the North Sea on behalf of Shell – you covered all this in detail at the time on your web pages.read more

In case you are not aware, ***I have already supplied Shell insider information and leaked documents to the Department of the Interior. A senior person requested our help on behalf of the DoI, which we were happy to give. We will of course be pleased to assist in any further requests made of us.

EMAIL FROM JOHN DONOVAN TO U.S. INTERIOR SECRETARY KEN SALAZAR: SENT 7 APRIL 2013

I am contacting you in your capacity as the Secretary of the Interior.

With my father, who will be 96 this month, I operate an independent, entirely non-commercial website – *royaldutchshellplc.com – that monitors the activities of Royal Dutch Shell.

We regularly publish Shell internal information supplied by a network of insiders who have provided information in relation to what you have aptly described as a “screw-up” by Shell in its Arctic drilling campaign.read more

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500 EXTERNAL PUBLICATIONS CITING OUR WEBSITES

See our link list of 477 articles by the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires, New York Times, CNBC etc, plus UK House of Commons Select Committee Hansard records, information on U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission websiteetc. all containing references to our Shell focussed websites, or our website founders Alfred and John Donovan. Includes TV documentary features in English and German, newspaper and magazine articles, radio interviews, newsletters etc. Plus academic papers, Stratfor intelligence reports and UK, U.S. and Australian state/parliamentary publications, also citing our Shell websites. Click on this link to see the entire list, all in date order with a link to an index of 64 books also containing references to our websites and/or our activities.
John Donovan, the website ownerHead-cut image of Alfred Donovan appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.

DISCLAIMER

This is not a Shell website, nor is it officially endorsed by or affiliated with Royal Dutch Shell.
There are no subscription charges nor do we solicit or accept donations.

SHELL PRELUDE TO DISASTER

The links below are to a series of articles, many triggered by a well-placed whistleblower directly involved in the pioneering Royal Dutch Shell Prelude project. Includes articles by Mr Bill Campbell above, the retired distinguished HSE Group Auditor of Shell International and another retired Shell guru with a track record of spotting potential pitfalls in major Shell projects.

NAZI NAMED SHIP HIRED BY SHELL

The campaign waged on this website by John Donovan to persuade Edward Heerema to rename the worlds biggest ship, The Pieter Schelte - which he named after his late father, Pieter Schelte Heerema, a former Officer in the German Waffen-SS - has been successful. On Friday 6 February 2015, Allseas announced that it was changing the ships name, and on 9 February announced the new name - Pioneering Spirit.

ROYAL DUTCH SHELL EMPLOYEE DATA BREACH

GLOBAL NEWS COVERAGE: FEBRUARY 2010
MORE INFORMATION: Contact details for over 176,000 employees and contractors of Royal Dutch Shell reached John Donovan and some environmental and human rights groups, ostensibly from disaffected Shell staff calling for a “peaceful corporate revolution” at the company. The database, from Shell’s internal directory, contained names and telephone numbers for all the company’s work force worldwide, including some home numbers. It was supplied with a 170­ page covering note, explaining that it was being circulated by “116 concerned employees of Shell dispersed throughout the USA, the UK, and the Netherlands”, to highlight the harm done by the company’s operations in Nigeria. John Donovan brought the leak to the attention of Shell. Tests proved that the data was authentic and he destroyed the database after being informed by Mr. Richard Wiseman, the then Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, that the confidential information if publicly disclosed, could put Shell employees and contractors in real danger.

SHELL’S ROLE IN NIGERIAN OPL 245 BRIBERY SCANDAL

Whatever fig leaves they might be trying to use to hide the truth, Shell and Eni paid over $1bn to a company called Malabu for the OPL 245 licence. Even though the payment was channelled through the Nigerian government, it was clear that Shell knew that the ultimate beneficiary was Dan Etete, the former minister of petroleum. Etete is the owner of Malabu, to whom he awarded the licence when he was Nigerian Minister of Petroleum.

SHELL PERSECUTION OF DR JOHN HUONG

SHELL SAKHALIN2 DEBACLE

NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL

Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.

MORE INFORMATION
Shell appeased and collaborated with the Nazis. The oil giant instructed its employees in the Netherlands to complete a form giving particulars about their descent, which for some, amounted to a self-declared death warrant. Shell used slave labor and was a close business partner in Germany of I.G. Farben, the notorious Nazi run chemical giant that also used slave labor and supplied the Zyklon-B gas used during the Holocaust to exterminate millions of people, including children. Shell continued the partnership with the Nazis in the years after the retirement of Sir Henri and even after his death. It was money generated on Shell forecourts around the world, profiteering from cartel oil prices, that funded the Nazi party and saved it from financial collapse. Evidence about Shell's Nazi connections can be found in extracts from "A History of Royal Dutch Shell" Volumes 1 and 2 authored by historians paid by Shell, who had unrestricted access to Shell archives. There are 67 pages in total, so takes some time to download.

Photograph (full size here) shows a Swastika flag flying at the head office of Royal Dutch Petroleum, 30 Carel van Bylandtlaan, The Hague, during the Nazi occupation of the in World War II (From Image Database Hague Municipal)

Sir Henri Deterding, the founder of the Royal Dutch Shell Group - known as "The Most Powerful Man in the World" - who became an ardent Nazi and financial supporter of Hitler and the Nazi party.

SHELL ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS

SHELL IP PIRACY

Reading between the lines in various legal documents, it seems that the allegations are that after the technology in question had been disclosed to a Shell company in the USA, the information was passed to Shell in the Netherlands in breach of confidentiality. And Royal Dutch Shell subsequently exploited the technology without payment or credit to the company holding the rights; Newton Research Partners. The inference seems to be that Twister B.V. was founded by Shell partly on trade secrets stolen from Bloom/Newton.

WEBSITE INFORMATION

DISCLAIMER: This is not a Shell website nor is it officially endorsed by or affiliated with Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Originally co-founded by the late Alfred Donovan and his son John, it is now operated by John, Shell's "No.1 Enemy", aided by an expert team, with invaluable support from retired Shell senior executives and officials as guest contributors and leaked information from Shell insiders.(JOHN DONOVAN, WEBSITE OWNER)For nearly a decade, we have operated globally under the Royal Dutch Shell Plc top level domain name, dealing on Shell’s reluctant behalf with job applications, business proposals, Shell pension enquiries, shareholder enquiries, complaints, invitations to speak at conferences, an approach from the Dutch Defence Ministry and even terrorist threats. All meant for Shell. Prospect magazine has aptly described this website as being:"An open wound for Shell":WIPO proceedings by Shell to seize the domain name failed.NO SUBSCRIPTION CHARGES: All of our watchdog activities monitoring Royal Dutch Shell, including operating this website, are carried out on a non-profit basis. Any advertising revenues generated are used to recover and/or defray operational costs. We are a news aggregator and original content website. All information is available free for educational and research purposes. SHELL TACIT ENDORSEMENT: WHAT A WELL INFORMED SHELL OFFICIAL SAID ABOUT US:
"John and Alfred Donovan well known in UK/Hague. They perceive Shell played them and so have made it their mission to embarrass,belittle and criticize Shell, which they do quite well. Their website, royaldutchshellplc.com is an excellent source of group news and comment and I recommend it far above what our own group internal comms puts out."
WARNING TO SHELL EMPLOYEES: Shell Global Affairs Security "CAS") is spying on Shell employees globally trying to trace who is visiting, posting, or leaking information to this website from Shell premises. Threats, including death threats, have allegedly been made against conscience driven Shell whistleblowers supplying us with information. The worlds biggest leak of employee details as part of a claimed corporate revolution by 116 Shell employees, suggest the espionage operation, threats and draconian litigation have not been entirely successful in cutting off the supply of information to this website. The insider leaks had already cost Shell billions on the Sakhalin Energy project and the loss of SEIC Deputy Chairman, David Greer.We publish our own carefully researched articles about Shell e.g. "How Royal Dutch Shell saved Hitler and the Nazi Party".MEDIA COVERAGE: Prospect Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Guardian, have all published major articles about us: "Rise of the Gripe Site";"Two men and a website mount vendetta against Shell' and "92-year-old's website leaves oil giant Shell-shocked”. SHELL PETROL STATION images displayed in the website header panel are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Information on copyright issues here.
John Donovan can be contacted at [email protected]

SHELL’S $500,000 WEDDING GIFT TO CORRUPT BRUNEI ROYAL FAMILY

EXTRACT FROM ASIAN JOURNAL ARTICLE IN LIST OF LINKS BELOW: "Fireworks will light up the sky for three nights. The local unit of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has donated 500,000 Brunei dollars (US$292,400; euro 243,700) for the display, and for cultural events to be hosted by popular performers from Malaysia."

BILL CAMPBELL WHISTLEBLOWER EMAIL TO MP’S

IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS:

THIS IS WHAT IT SAID:

Subject: This could be the most important whistleblower email you have ever received.

Some unfortunate Royal Dutch Shell workers have already lost their lives. More lives are at stake.

My name is Bill Campbell. I am a former Group Auditor of Shell International. I am writing to you on a matter of conscience in an effort to avert the inevitability of another major accident in the North Sea. The consequences could potentially impact on families in many constituencies, including your own.

As Royal Dutch Shell and the Health & Safety Executive would acknowledge, I am an expert on safety matters relating to offshore oil and gas platforms. In 1999, I was appointed by Shell to lead a safety audit on the Brent Bravo platform. The audit revealed a platform management culture that basically gave a higher priority to production than the safety of Shell employees. To our astonishment we discovered that a "Touch F*** All" policy was in place. Worse still, safety records were routinely falsified and repairs bodged.

I personally brought the shocking situation to the attention of senior management including Malcolm Brinded, the then Managing Director of Shell Exploration & Production. I revealed that ESDV leak-off tests were purposely falsified, not once but many times and that Brent Bravo platform management had admitted responsibility for the dangerous practices being followed. In response to my team ringing alarm bells, management pledged to rectify the serious problems which had been uncovered.

When I later complained that the pledges were not being kept, I was removed from my oversight function.

Four years later, a massive gas leak occurred on the platform. Two workers lost their lives. I have no doubt at all that the inaction of the relevant Asset Manager, the General Manager, the Oil Director and Malcolm Brinded, contributed in some part to the unlawful killing of two persons on Brent Bravo in September 2003.

Shell subsequently pleaded guilty to breaches of the HSE regulations and a record-breaking £900,000 fine was imposed. I thought this would bring about a real change in policy to put the emphasis on safety.

Unfortunately I was wrong. Although I supplied the evidence related to 1999, and the fact that there had been a collapse in controls of integrity from 1999 to 2003 on all 16 of Shell's North Sea offshore installations covered in a post fatality integrity review to the HSE for review by the Procurator Fiscal, none of this evidence was presented before the Sheriff at the subsequent Inquiry. The situation is explained in a letter to the Procurator Fiscal and the Sheriff (on 24th February 2007).

Shell management has engaged in spin to try to pretend that it is getting to grips with its safety problem. However, its atrocious safety record - the worst in the North Sea in terms of accidental deaths and absolute number of enforcement actions – tells a different story. This fact has resulted in a number of newspaper articles.

I have had meetings with senior Shell people including its CEO Mr. Jeroen van der Veer. I regret to say that I have found him to be economical with the truth. He prefers to support cover-up and deceit rather than confronting the underlying problems. Brinded is now Executive Director of Shell Exploration & Production. He believes in burying evidence.

My family and friends would probably prefer me to give up on this matter and enjoy my retirement after so many years working for Shell.

However, by writing to every MP in the UK, no one can ever say that I did not do my best to avert an inevitable further major accident event in the North Sea. When it happens (I pray that I am wrong) I will make this warning communication available to the media together with the vast amount of evidence in my possession.

At least my conscience is clear. I have done everything possible to ring the alarm bells about Shell management and its unscrupulous attitude to the safety of its employees.

Yours sincerely
Bill Campbell

ENDS

(Malcolm Brinded and Jeroen van der Veer are no longer with Shell. The Oil Director referred to in the email is Chris Finlayson, who left Shell to become Chief Executive of British Gas before being fired - his photo immediately below)

SHELL RESERVES FRAUD

SIR PHILIP WATTS, THE GROUP CHAIRMAN OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL GROUP, FORCED TO RESIGN IN 2004

Shell’s reputation was destroyed in 2004 after FIVE consecutive cuts to its hydrocarbon reserves covering 55% of its total reserves. US and UK financial regulators imposed $150 million in fines on Shell for securities fraud. Shell was also rocked by class action lawsuits.Sir Philip Watts
and Walter van de Vijver (whose headcut images appear courtesy of The Wall Street Journal) were among the Shell executives forced to resign. More details at the foot of this column.
MORE DETAILS: The Shell reserves scandal brought about
the end of the Royal Dutch Shell Group in its original form as an Anglo-Dutch partnership.
Shell Transport & Trading Co and Royal Dutch Petroleum were unified into a single Dutch owned company - Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Sir Philip turned to religion and is now a very wealthy priest after receiving a payoff/pension package from Shell reportedly worth $18.5 million. Walter van de Vijver in contrast was the victim of a sadistic sacking by his Shell senior management backstabbing colleagues.

by John Donovan

Displayed below are some of the spectacular promotional campaigns my company Don Marketing created for Shell in the 1980s and 1990s. This was before the series of SIX high court actions we brought against Shell for stealing ideas (4) and for defamation (2) - all settled by Shell. This website is a permanent response by me to the malicious underhand tactics, including treachery, espionage and intimidation, used by Shell during and after the bouts of litigation. More information is printed at the foot of this column.
MORE DETAILS: After a solicitor acting for Shell threatened to make the litigation "drawn out and difficult" with the intention of draining the resources of a financially weaker opponent, my late father (Alfred Donovan) and I decided to mount a wide-ranging campaign as a counter-measure. We jointly founded the Shell Corporate Conscience Pressure Group, which nearly 15% of Shell UK retailers joined. We regularly conducted ethical surveys involving up to 1500 Shell petrol stations. All responses were opened and authenticated by an independent solicitor who supplied Affidavits confirming the results. In whole page announcements in trade magazines (examples above) we challenged Shell to commission and publish the resuits of independent research asking the same questions and offering respondents GUARANTEED anonymity. Shell never took up the invitation. Instead it asked the UK Advertising Standards Authority to investigate our Shell surveys. No problems were found. The head-cut image of Alfred Donovan appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.

SHELL CONTROVERSIES

selection of memorable warnings/articles/images associated with the controversial track record of Royal Dutch Shell.

WARNING: DO NOT DISCLOSE YOUR IDEAS TO SHELL GameChanger OR SHELL Ideas360 WITHOUT TAKING EVERY POSSIBLE PRECAUTION. Shell management has ample funds to pay for intellectual property but prefers to steal it from small businesses and in our experience, gives its full backing to dishonest managers willing to do its bidding. We have sued Shell repeatedly in the High Court for the theft of our Intellectual Property. It is doubtful if anyone can match our dire experience in dealing with this ruthless unscrupulous serial poacher of other parties ideas. Expect threats, legal machinations and sinister action from Shell and its spooks if you object to having your ideas stolen.

Some years ago extensive documentary evidence was brought to the attention of Malcolm Brinded above, when he was Chairman of Shell UK, proving beyond any doubt that Shell executives had conspired to rig a tender for a major contract. A number of innocent firms were deliberately lured into signing confidentiality agreements and disclosing Intellectual Property to Shell under false pretences, in a carefully contrived plot. The firm which was awarded the contract never took part in the tender. One objective of the Machiavellian plan was to stop/delay IP trade secrets owned by the participants in the tender from being disclosed to Shell's rivals. This was achieved by outright deception, without paying a cent to the firms involved, who wrongly believed they were participating in an honest tender. Instead of sacking the ring leader, AJL - who had a personal relationship with the firm which miraculously won the race in which it never ran - Shell senior directors, including Brinded, gave AJL their full backing. Some of the Shell executives involved, including for example, Tim Hannagan, still hold high positions inside Shell - in his case, Global Brand and Visual Identity Manager. If Shell does not accept that this is a true, provable account of what happened, then it should sue for libel. How on earth is such predatory conduct compatible with Shell's claimed business principles?